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Monday, February 09, 2009

just like pioneer folks!

In the spirit of full disclosure I must admit that I am backdating this post by three minutes so as to have it dated Monday. I am allowing myself this small cheat because:

I am still up from Monday, and hence Monday is still mentally "today" instead of "yesterday".

I just got home less than half an hour ago from school

AND

We have been without DSL all day, and still are. I know, it is remarkable that we have survived. I have only logged on to the Internet twice today, both times via dial-up. Didn't Ma and Pa use dial-up? I think they did. See, we had this GINORMOUS lightning storm last night. It was really, really loud and sudden and hail-y (to continue with the Little House theme, it's the kind of storm they'd have had hit them just as Pa was making a list of all the wonderful needful things he planned to buy with the bumper crop of wheat he had standing in the field), and at one point there was a strike that seemed like it was right on top of us, and not only did the thunder sound like an eighteen-wheeler being dropped on our roof, not only did the lightning light up the entire interior of our house JUST as all the lights blinked out and then came back on, but I think our modem got completely fried. But I wasn't quite SURE, because when I called our ISP to ask if I could buy a new modem in our small town or if I had to drive to the not-so-near and not-so-small town to get one, they had a recording on that said that their DSL service to our area had been partly knocked out by the storm. So I've been waiting all day to see if it was their problem or mine. Short answer: It's mine. Dang. This is our second modem in a year. Time to buy a surge protector for the phone line.

You know what's cool about older kids? Instead of freaking out during lightning storms, they're right there with you shouting about how awesome it is. Now I just have to convince them -- or at least one of them -- that roller coasters and really high, fast waterslides are nothing to be freaked out about and maybe I'll have someone I can take with me to theme- and water-parks. Worth a try, anyway.

In other news:

Both my classes have tests in two weeks. YES. I love tests. Except: ACK. In the algebra class, your test scores ARE your grade. No pressure there.

I just tried to upload a few pictures to Flickr via dial-up. HAR HAR HAW I have such a sense of humor. (OK, trying again after resizing them to 800px and it looks like it MIGHT finish before it's time for me to get up in the morning.)

FINALLY. OH. my. GOSH. It HURTS.

Standing on my front stoop, looking slightly to the left, this morning when I (finally; it was a late night) got out of bed. (Don't ask me why I didn't take pictures looking straight ahead or to the right. Sun on the lens maybe? Just wasn't thinking. This is the best view anyway.) That little shack-looking thing is an Airsoft bunker. It's supposed to be temporary -- if by "temporary" you mean "it's there until the kids move out and if we don't act quickly at that point we'll end up leaving it up for the grandkids". I love that the boys have fun playing Airsoft with their friends. I'm not so overjoyed about the fact that (one of) their bunker(s) is smack in the middle of my favorite view, but you can't have everything.

Claire, tobogganing down our sledding hill. It is an enviable hill for sledding. Steep enough to get up some speed but not so steep you're going to get a concussion; no rocks; no trees; no fences; no roads. Come on over next time it snows. BYOI. (That's Bring Your Own Innertube, of course.)

LT, who can actually steer his disc and keep it pointing straight ahead all the way to the bottom, a skill I certainly never mastered.

This is a mountain that's across our little valley from us; I can see it really well from my kitchen window. Anytime the weather is the least bit interesting, it's likely that I'll look across at it and see that it is having different weather than we are. When we're in the sun, it's often under dark clouds. It can be raining on us, and lovely and sunny there. Cloud shadows look divine skidding along it. I don't know why this tickles me so, but it does.

They look SO unthrilled to be out sliding on a beautiful sunny snowy morning when most of their peers are stuck in classrooms. Really, though, they were just unthrilled to have to stop to pose for a picture with the sun in their eyes. I am such a mean mom.

Comments

Posted by: Michael at February 10, 2009 07:09 AM

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